Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript length and format

We publish papers of varying lengths and this depends on the nature of the study. But in general, the word count for a typical paper, counting all elements text, tables, footnotes, and references is approximately 10,000, and the character count (counting spaces) is about 70,000. Please use Times Roman 12-point type and the 8.5 x 11 page setting; place page numbers in the upper right corner; and leave top and side margins of at least one inch.

Please submit your paper in MS Word or as RTF. Our system will convert your Word or RTF document to PDF. If you work with LaTeX software, please contact us. In brief, although we may be able to work with the LaTeX file during the review process, if the paper is accepted we will need you to provide a Word document for editing and typesetting purposes.

No author identifying information

The paper you upload must be purged of all information identifying you, your coauthors, and your institution(s). Prepare a separate cover note that includes the current professional title, address, telephone number, and e-mail address for each author of the manuscript. (Copy this into the "Cover Letter" field in the online submission.) This cover note will not be visible to referees. If you encounter any technical problems, contact our office at ilrr@cornell.edu or (607) 255-3295.

Front Pages

Provide the article title, authors' names, and abstract in the appropriate, separate fields of the webpage at the time you upload the paper. Do not include them in the body of the paper itself. (These elements are automatically combined into a title page that the system adds to the paper; the authors' identities are concealed until such time as the paper is accepted.)

Acknowledgments, Data Availability, and Bio Sketches

In the "Cover Letter" field, provide acknowledgments (with exceptions noted below) and a note stating which data and programs you are willing to make available, on request, to interested researchers. A typical note runs as follows: "A data appendix with additional results, and copies of the computer programs used to generate the results presented in the paper, are available from the first author at [postal address and/or email]." When the data used are proprietary, provide the names of agencies or persons who can guide other researchers through the procedures for accessing the data. If you created the data set yourself and wish to exploit it further before making it public, specify a date after which the data will be available.

If you wish to acknowledge the editor or referees, please do so in a specific footnote rather than in the acknowledgments section. There is no need to include a disclaimer stating that errors, or the views expressed, are the author's. We run a blanket statement to that effect on the inside front cover of every issue.

Publication Time Table

Accepted papers are copyedited once the Editors have decided in which issue the paper will appear and/or in the order they have been accepted. Expect some time lag between acceptance and copyediting, and from copyediting to publication. Authors are given the opportunity to review the edited manuscript and then return it to the Managing Editor, who works with the compositor to typeset the issue for publication. You will be provided with typeset pages to proofread.

If your work is accepted, please keep the Managing Editor and the Publication Assistant (ILRR@cornell.edu) informed of any changes in your contact information and any long absences that may prolong your response time to correspondence.

Address

Please fill in your name, address, and e-mail as well as institutional affiliation in the appropriate spaces, using sentence case (not entirely upper case or lower case). You may log in at any time and change this information as needed.

Abstract

In the "Abstract" field, provide an abstract of no more than 150 words. The first sentence generally describes the data, method, and purpose. Two or three other sentences state the most important findings, conclusions, and, sometimes, implications. Use only terms that will be understood by a general audience (which includes readers who have little background in statistics). Use the third-person singular or plural, depending on the number of authors of the paper ("The authors investigate how union members in U.S. manufacturing plants...").

Opening

Provide an untitled introduction of 3 to 5 paragraphs that offers a brief description of the study's central research questions, conceptual framework, and contribution to the literature. Use the first-person ("I" or "we" rather than "This study"). Do not present an outline of the paper; do not anticipate findings or conclusions. Avoid footnotes, tables and figures, and in-text cites in this section.

Body

Place headings (and subheadings, if needed) regularly throughout the paper to guide readers through the material. Avoid very long paragraphs. Whenever the quote or fact or argument you are borrowing appears on specific pages in the source, cite those pages rather than the entire source.

Headings and Sections

ILR Review allows no more than 3 levels of headings. Use boldface for the first 2 levels.

Main headings (Title Case, centered) are first.

Second-level subheadings (Title Case, flush left) are next.

Third-level subheadings (Title Case, italicized) are next.

Don't skip steps: That is, no second-level headings before you use a first-level heading. Use second- and third-level headings in sets of two or more.

Examples

Methods [1st level]

Data and Sample [2nd level]

Measures [2nd level]

Independent variable [3rd level]

Dependent variables [3rd level]

Hypotheses

Fully and separately state each hypothesis and give each a distinct number (Hypothesis 1) or number and letter (Hypothesis 1a) label. Set hypotheses off from the running text in text blocks, in roman type.

Examples

Hypothesis 1: There is a positive relationship between poor air quality and respiratory ailments.

Hypothesis 1a: When the air quality index decreases, more people complain of respiratory ailments.

Language

Technical terms. To make your work more accessible to the Review's wide-ranging readership, define key technical terms. These include words or phrases that a typical collegiate dictionary may define differently from you or other published scholars. Italicize or enclose in quotation marks the first appearance in your paper of each technical term.

Sexist/Biased language: Avoid language that might be interpreted as denigrating. Do not use "he" or "she" exclusively. Using the plural -- changing "the manager . . . he" to "managers . . .they" -- is one solution; using "he or she" ("him or her") is another. Do not combine the singular and the plural: "An individual their. . . ."

Active voice and first person: Please write in the active voice ("They did it") instead of the passive voice ("It was done") to make it easy for readers to see who did what. Use the first person ("I" or "we") to describe what you, or you and your coauthors, did.

Examples

PASSIVE (less desirable): It was reported that the higher the wages paid to employees, the more effort the employees put in to their work.

ACTIVE: Joplin and Atherton (2004) reported that when firms paid higher wages to employees, the employees expended more effort at work.

Tables and Figures

Please review the tables and figures in any issue of the Review. Label tables and figures as follows:

Table 1. Title of TableFigure 1. Title of Figure

If appropriate, indicate the source of the information directly below the table or figure. Place the Notes: line(s) below the Source: line. Use substantive titles that are accessible to readers without a background in statistics. Include headings for all columns, including the first, descriptive column, as well as in row descriptions. Ideally, tables should be 5" x 8" for portrait orientation or vice versa for landscape. If you use colors in your tables or figures, they will display in color in the online version of the article, but they will be converted to gray scale for the print version. Be sure that you have chosen a presentation style that will still make sense in gray scale, for example, varying dots, dashes, or symbols rather than color alone.

We prefer that tables be compiled within Word's Table feature, and tables must be editable (not copied into the file as a static image).

Although figures may be copied into the paper's Word file for the initial submission process, if the paper is accepted we will need you to supply the figures saved in their native format, for example, .eps, .jpg, PowerPoint.

Use asterisks to denote statistical significance as follows:

*Statistically significant at the .10 level; ** at the .05 level; *** at the .01 level.

Take numbers to no more than three decimal places unless finer specification is meaningful. Table footnotes should include sources, notes (keyed a, b, c, etc.) explaining cryptic or ambiguous elements, and an explanation of significance levels. The footnotes should make tables and figures as self-contained as possible.

Place all tables, figures, and appendices at the end of the document, but indicate within the running text of the paper where to place them as follows:

Conclusion

The conclusion is usually no more than 2 pages long. Briefly state conclusions, with reference to specific findings as necessary; recapitulate how the findings add to or differ from those of previous studies; and, if appropriate, discuss implications or unanswered questions (but avoid a detailed description of "more research needed"). As in the introductory paragraphs, avoid footnotes and in-text cites.

Footnotes

Use footnotes, not endnotes. Notes should add additional explanatory material.

Avoid notes such as “See Anderson 2010,” which are better moved into the text and handled as a parenthetical citation, e.g., (Anderson 2010). For these in-text cites, use last name with year enclosed in parentheses; separate multiple authors with a semicolon and arrange them chronologically rather than alphabetically; for sources authored by several names, write out all names in the first instance (up to four names) and then use et al. thereafter. If more than four author names, use et al. even at first occurrence.

Appendices

May contain text or tabular material. Use letters for each appendix, if more than one is included, for example, Appendix A, Appendix B. Tables and figures that fall within an appendix should be numbered separately from those that fall within the main portion of the paper; for example, Table A.1 for the first table in the first appendix.

References

All entries in the Reference list must be cited at least once within the text, tables, or figures of the paper.

Likewise, all sources cited within the paper must be included in the reference list.

Provide full first names of authors.

Alphabetize by last name of the sole/first author, editor, corporate author (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau), or

periodical (e.g., New York Times) if there is no person as author/editor. For works authored by the same person,

put in order of earliest date of publication first, and differentiate entries from the same year by adding a, b,

and c, etc., after the year (e.g., 1999a, 1999b).

Provide both volume and issue number for article entries, if available/applicable.

Examples of various source materials can be found within the Citation guide link on this website or at the SAGE Publications website.